Toy Guns
by It'sTimeToDance
Summary: A look on the events leading to the end of Batman and Robin. DCU Post-Crisis.


**Author's Note: **I was doing a oneshot for my other thingy _Soliloquy_ and I mentioned how Robin had a huge _altercation _with Batman and had to...uh...not...be...Robin...anymore...so became Nightwing. Could be called a companion, but whatever. I'm just rather bored.

In this, though, I'm just gonna go with DC Universe and make it so he goes from Titans to Batman, and right now he's with Batman....Again, I don't know. This is just a mini-thing. Crossover with Teen Titans and any Batman franchise y'fancy.

Also, just for future reference; I got to paroozing Wikipedia, and I find I _love _the whole Dick Grayson **angsty **past from the Post-Crisis timeline. For those curious:

Dick Grayson=Twelve year old uber-acrobat. Sees a dude cut the rope on his parents trapeze thing. See the guy later. Gets bitch slapped. Gets concussion. Sent to hospital. Sent to foster care. Gets beat up _in _foster care. Runs to become a catholic...or...something...In a church. Wants to runaway. Batman comes. Tells him weird cryptic message. Bruce Wayne comes, wards him up. Dick feels angsty, starts running all over the place. Bruce/Batman trains him to be Robin. He does the Robin thing. Judge Watkins Two-Face deal goes on (not even gonna start), gets beat up again. Batman gets pissed. Retired for five minutes then slaps the spandex back on. Now he's seventeen (which I think is a bit ridiculous if he's sill _wearing _the spandex). Gets *spoilers* shot in the shoulder by *spoilers* the Joker. And, here we are.

* * *

Robin leaned back against his chair as he watched the dot that was the Batmobile glide across the city map, into the frenzied mass of blue and red that was the entire Gotham Police Department. The rest of the city seemed silent. The people of Gotham, by now, surely realized when to go skipping down the sidewalks and when to lock the doors and duck under the bed. In fact, Robin really did wonder why a_nyone _lived in this hell hole, when the relatively peaceful town of Jump City was just a bus ride away. It boggled him.

A crackling on the radar buzzed to life, snapping Robin out of his daze and awakening the dimly lit monitor, creating spastic twitches of the sonar and obscene noises hat made him wince. He threw his feet off the key pads and scrolled the buzzer down the screen.

_Buzz...pshft...buzz_

Robin squinted at the frantically blinking screen, his eyes searching the map until he found the source.

He scrolled in, and in, and in.

"Oh, you have _got _to be joking," he whispered to himself, tapping at the keys with no real intent. The speakers buzzed, eventually morphing into disfigured, gravelly warnings.

"Psfttth...stay there, Robin...pfftht...buzz...don't....even think...about it....psftttt...."

It went dead, and it seemed slightly less chaotic. The lights still flashed.

Robin snorted, flinging his legs from the chair and swinging his keys around his finger, "Please."

* * *

He parked his cycle in a nearby alley way, and Robin kept a wary eye on the shadows. Of course, he'd done the swoop-and-save before, but never completely _alone. _Not that he was really alone, either. If he strained his ears, he could hear the chatter of bustling police officers around he corner, and he had no doubt Batman was on some rooftop being mysterious and all that crap that Robin knew he secretly loved.

The city, Robin had always noticed, was like a rather defiant eggshell. It was beaten and dropped and destroyed almost on a daily basis, but it never completly cracked. Robin didn't know if it ever would, but it was still an eggshell. It could still be destroyed. It was just a matter of spilling the oil, and dropping the match.

"Bird Boy! Come to visit?"

Robin spun on his feet, his neck craning to it's capacity as he searched the alleyway. That voice, he recalled, was possibly _the _most disturbing he'd heard in his lifetime. He'd heard plenty of voices.

It came again, mocking and boisterous at some unworn victory, "Losing your touch? I'm disappointed. After so long, too."

_Swoosh_

The sound of a toy gun going off made Robin jump, and he felt his throat go dry. His hands instinctively went to his belt, unlatching a birdarang and clenching it between in his fist. Another swoosh, and another, went off. None sounded close, and he heard them clink off the metal of a fire escape overhead.

Silence.

Robin had come to the conclusion that any body crazy enough to run around Gotham in the middle of the night was probably just deranged enough to be dangerous.

_That voice..._

A terrible cackling echoed around the air, so hysterically nonsensical that Robin felt chills go down his back.

_Swoosh_

He jumped again, his heels digging into the pavement to keep him from toppling over.

_Where's Batman?_

_Swoosh_

A women screamed some distance away, and an onslaught of _swoosh_es and police rumble followed. The air became thick, and a glint of silver sparkling as the light caught it. Robin felt a thump on the back of his head, and he stumbled foreword.

_Swoosh_

_Swoosh_

"C'mon, Bird Boy, I _know _you can do better then that."

Robin swung his foot through the air, his heel catching a body. The laughter continued.

"Or maybe you need _Batman _to get _anything _done!"

_Swoosh_

Robin kicked the empty air, and the laughter seemed to bounce off the building walls.

_Swoosh_

_Swoosh_

Something hit him again, in the shoulder, that sent his bones rattling against each other. He swung his fist around, but it caught nothing.

"Didn't Batty tell you to stay put?"

_Swoosh_

"Maybe you should do what your told."

_Swoosh_

_Bang_

Pain exploded in his shoulder, and he fell forward into the wall. He pressed his palm to his shoulder blade, and blood spilled through his fingers. He had to squint at the wave of flashing lights that invaded the darkness of the alley, and all he saw was a flash of a maniacal, ruby red grin, before he faded off.

* * *

Robin woke up to silence, seeing nothing but the jagged, eroded ceiling of the Batcave. He turned his head lazily, and saw a lump of black sitting next to him, nothing distinguishable other then the blurred, pointed ears of the cowl. He tried to sit up, but a hand--could be called a brick--pushed him back down, "Don't move."

He lay still for a moment and, when he spoke, it sounded painful to his own ears, "....Joker?"

Robin could imagine Batman's jaw tightening, "I told you to stay here."

He sighed and tried moving his shoulders, "Come on, Bruce..."

Batman stood up and started pacing, "You deliberately disobeyed my orders."

Robin sat up, slowly, and Batman didn't object, "Like I was gonna let you fight the _Joker _alone."

He spun around so fast that Robin jumped, "_I've been fighting him alot longer then you, Robin._"

The boy looked taken aback, and he found himself glaring, "So, you think I can't handle myself?"

Neither took much notice as the tapping of feet coming down the stairs, and the whispers that came with it. Robin waited for a response from the older man, and he saw Alfred Pennyworth and Lesley Thompson standing at the foot of the staircase, their voices fading as the argument progressed.

"When I tell you to _do _something, you _do it_." Batman growled, now back in the shadows of the cave, and only the pale outline of his cowl, and the white slits of his eyes were visible.

Robin looked at his shoulder, seeing nothing but crusted, brown blood staining a wrap of white bandages. He winced.

Batman's breath was heavy, and he sounded like he could cheerfully rip the Boy Wonder's head off. Neither said anything, waiting for something to be done, something to be said. A wave of nausea overcame Robin, and he lied back down on the stiff, metal slab of a bed, gripping his shoulder. Batman's eyes flashed, and he sat down as well. Robin's eyebrows furrowed, and he was suddenly panicked at the silence.

"Bruce," he said, not able to mask his hysteria, "Bruce, I'm fine. It was just my shoulder. _I'm fine_."

Batman shook his head, "You can't be Robin anymore."

Alfred and Dr. Thompson, at the foot of the stairs, were suddenly rigid.

"_Bruce!" _Robin hissed, sitting back up and pulling himself from the metal slab, "Are you _kidding _me? It was an _accident_! It could've happened to _anybody! _I'm _fine!_"

"No, you're _not _fine!" he shouted, "You could have been _killed_, Robin!"

Robin stood straight, following Batman as he paced to no where, "I _wasn't! _You can't just _fire _me!"

Batman was now at the head of the stairs, beside Alfred and Dr. Thompson, "I've already called your team."

Robin stomped closer to him, "You can't--"

Batman spun around, "I _can _and I _will_."

He started to walk away.

Robin looked at his shoulder again, just because there was nothing else to look at, "What are you so afraid of?"

By now, Batman was half way up the stairs, with Alfred and Dr. Thompson staring at he and Robin in shock. He froze, and from the distance he looked like a living shadow, "Get some rest. Richard."

The door slammed, and he was gone.

Robin looked at the door incredulously, then at Alfred, then back at the door.

"Richard," Dr. Thompson said carefully, advancing like someone would a hungry bear, "you should lie back down...the wound could get infected--"

"_No fucking way_," Robin hissed, gliding towards the car hatch, "no way in _hell _am I staying here."

He heard her and Alfred's protest, but he hardly listened, taking the keys to the R-Cycle and starting it up.

No Robin, no Batman, he thought to himself as the cycle started rolling from the underground hatch, no Robin...

He started towards Jump City, leaving Robin where he belonged.

* * *

**Author's Note: **This sucks, but I'm posting it anyway, just for kicks.


End file.
